12-Year-Old Boy Becomes 14-Year-Old Girl

[KEmperor]

Ok, so I'm reading the headline for this article, and I'm thinking to myself:  "Forget the sex change, how did they change a 12 year old into a 14 year old with surgery?"  Of course, once you read the article it turns out that it's just bad wording because the report is about something that began two years ago.  Still, I think it's a bit deceptive there.

Here's the article if anyone's interested.  Personally I find altering a child's body like this to be a bit disturbing.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,248196,00.html

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

the surgery took 2 years?

[opebo]

Super cool!  However I find it hard to believe there have not been sex changes at this age in Southeast Asia.  Prime earning years you know!

[Citizen James]

Strange and unsettling if true.  I may run this one by snopes - the fox links back to the daily mail as it's source - a source which I have observed to be not only unreliable, but to manufacture stories out of whole cloth to serve their political perspectives at times.

<hijack>
For example, the claim that the Toyota Prius creates a wasteland is a major exersize in intentional deception.  Now, the fact that nickel is used in car batteries is factual, and that fact that hybrid cars have batteries is also true.  After that, a little research (very little research needed by anyone with half a brain really).

The Canadian wasteland - which was a serious problem, came about in the mid twentyith century.  They have been working on cleanup since the 70's or so - long before the prius was even first produced. (The mightly Wiki

</hijack>

I'm not saying that this story isn't true - though I think the child would have been better until he possessed the emotional development to make such a considerable decision if it is, I'm just saying that I'm not all that certain of the veracity of the source and am wondering if there is an independent verification from a fairly reliable source.

[Padfoot]

I consider myself pretty open when it comes to being accepting of people's sexual orientation.  I believe the government is obligated to recognize gay marriage based on the First Amendment and therefore I view any ban on it as unconstitutional.  However the transgender thing is something I just can't wrap my brain around.  IMO this is self-mutilation.  It reminds me of the guy who thinks he is a tiger and has had cat whiskers implanted in his cheeks and has had cosmetic dentistry to alter his teeth.  To see something like this happen to such a young person is even more frightening. 

[John Dibble]

Well that's just... odd. Not that I have a problem with people getting sex change operations in general, but I think this should probably have waited until the boy became an adult. He could just cross-dress until then for all I care.

But anywho, this did catch my Libertarian eye:

"Her treatment, which has cost more than $40,000, is being funded by German taxpayers."

Hope the German taxpayers know their money is being well spent.

[Joe Republic]

And to think, the boy only went in for a routine local to get a wart removed.  Somebody messed up bad.

[afleitch]

She was too young. Even, as I suspect, her reasons for changing gender were, to her deep rooted, no child should be legally capable to ask for surgery, especially before the development of secondary sexual characteristics until they are a legal adult and not without a psychological   
assessment.

(And I'm using she rather than he as the person in question is now considered to be female)

[NewFederalist]

And to think, the boy only went in for a routine local to get a wart removed. 

That was SOME wart! (Ouch!)

[Verily]

She was too young. Even, as I suspect, her reasons for changing gender were, to her deep rooted, no child should be legally capable to ask for surgery, especially before the development of secondary sexual characteristics until they are a legal adult and not without a psychological   
assessment.

(And I'm using she rather than he as the person in question is now considered to be female)

Indeed, I know from the epxerience of a close and dear friend of mine that, in the United States, extensive psychological tests are needed before such an operation can be undergone, primarily because, before such laws, as many as half of all sex-change patients committed suicide within a few years, usually saying that they made a mistake. I find it disturbing that this young child was apparently allowed to go through a sex-change operation without so much as reaching full maturity, let alone rigorous psychological testing. The parents, I would think, cannot say at all how their child will react and should not have been involved.